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What is an Ecosystem?

What is an Ecosystem?

The Soil Ecosystem

The Soil Ecosystem

Plants obtain inorganic minerals and water from the soil, which acts as a natural medium for land plants. The composition and quality of soil depend not only on the chemical constituents but also on the presence of living organisms. In general, soils contain three major components:

Ecological Disturbance

Ecological Disturbance

An ecological disturbance is a temporary disruption in the environment resulting from abiotic, biotic, or anthropogenic factors, causing a pronounced change in an ecosystem. The impact of an ecological disturbance, which can depend on its intensity, frequency, and spatial distribution, plays a significant role in shaping the species diversity within the ecosystem.

Trophic Efficiency

Trophic Efficiency

Trophic level transfer efficiency (TLTE) is a measure of the total energy transfer from one trophic level to the next. Due to extensive energy loss as metabolic heat, an average of only 10% of the original energy obtained is passed on to the next level. This pattern of energy loss severely limits the possible number of trophic levels in a food chain.

What are Biogeochemical Cycles?

What are Biogeochemical Cycles?

The most common elements in organic molecules, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus, are only available in the ecosystem in limited amounts. Therefore, these nutrients must be recycled through both biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem, in processes generally called biogeochemical cycles.

Trophic Levels

Trophic Levels

All organisms in an ecosystem occupy a trophic level in the food chain. The lowest level consists of primary producers, which synthesize their food from either solar or chemical energy. Each subsequent level obtains energy from the levels below. Detritivores can occupy any of the levels above primary producers.

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JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning

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The three major axes of terrestrial ecosystem function.

Mirco Migliavacca^1,2,3, Talie Musavi⁴, Miguel D Mahecha^4,5,6,7

¹Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany. mmiglia@bgc-jena.mpg.de.

|September 23, 2021

Summary

Scientists identified three key axes explaining 71.8% of ecosystem function variability. These axes relate to productivity, water-use strategies, and carbon-use efficiency, offering insights into ecosystem responses to environmental change.

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Ecosystem Science
Plant Ecology

Background:

Plant traits and forms vary along fundamental spectra, influencing ecological strategies and community composition.
Understanding ecosystem functions and their variation is crucial for predicting ecosystem responses to global change.

Purpose of the Study:

To identify and characterize the main axes of variation in ecosystem functions across terrestrial biomes.
To assess the ability of land surface models to reproduce observed ecosystem function patterns.

Main Methods:

Derived ecosystem functions from a global dataset of surface gas exchange measurements.
Utilized multivariate statistical analyses to identify key axes of variation.
Compared model simulations with observed data.

Main Results:

Three axes explained 71.8% of ecosystem function variability: maximum productivity (vegetation structure), water-use strategies (vegetation height and climate), and carbon-use efficiency (aridity and vegetation structure).
Land surface models accurately reproduced the primary axis of ecosystem functions (productivity).
Models showed stronger correlations between functions than observed, limiting predictions of ecosystem responses.

Conclusions:

Identified key drivers and patterns of ecosystem function variation.
Highlighted limitations in current land surface models for predicting ecosystem responses to environmental change.
Emphasized the need for improved model structures to capture complex ecosystem dynamics.